Most often when we hear the word Strategic plan we relate it to a plan for corporate bodies. Who says small business owners cannot also invest in a strategic plan for their business. When you aim at putting your business on the global map a strategic plan is a must.
Don’t just aim to make a living out of your business mama, Aim to create a lasting business that will leave a legacy.
Creating a strategic plan helps you deal with internal and eternal forces that affect the long term success of your business. Through a strategic plan you are able to identify your core competence, uniquely position yourself in your industry and most importantly thrive no matter what your environment throws at you.
The first month of the year is almost ended;
These simple steps should serve as a guide to modify your already existing plan or help you develop a plan for your business if you do not have one.
Identify your Mission and Vision
First of all its important for you to identify your vision, mission and values as a business; The mission of your business will tell people what you exist to do as a company.
Your vision seeks to help you identify what kind of business you want your business to be in the future.
Your values are the guiding beliefs. These guiding beliefs define for you and your clients what your business will or will not accept. What do you want to be known for, e.g Belief in being the best in provision of IT equipment.
Carry out a SWOT analysis
Secondly carry out SWOT analysis. At this stage you analyze your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Your strengths are the resources that your business owns that can help you achieve your objectives. These resources include human, technology, finance, skills, abilities, products, services.
Your weaknesses are the resources that you would need as a business to run your operations which you do not have. Lack of these could affect your mission and vision.
Opportunities are situations that your business can take advantage , they usually come unexpected whilst the threats are forces that you may not have control over that can adversely affect your business.
After carrying out SWOT, determine your overall goals and targets..What are you committed to achieving this year . It may be selling 1million of your products, you should be able to quantify your objectives as business.
Formulate your strategies
Formulate your strategies from there on the basis of the SWOT analysis you have undertaken. Under your strategies look at your marketing penetration strategy, your market development strategy and your product development strategy.
After formulating your strategies, prepare your strategic plan where you incorporate the vision, mission, values, SWOT analysis and objectives.
Strategic plans are usually long term plans for the business so will most of the time lie with you as the business owner.
To help your team understand the direction you want to go, Develop a tactical plan that breaks down the strategic plan into day by day tasks to be achieved and assign to respective team members,
After putting the tactical plan into action, incorporate control system to ensure you are on course as a business.
Interested in our Strategic plan template. Send us an email on mary.sackey@gmail.com
Author
Mary A.S.Sackey
Media & Marketing Manager
NALO Solutions Limited.
